Sunday, April 28th, 2019
We had viewed the property while we were planning a September “retirement trip” with our Castle Durham friends but ruled the village out due to it’s small size as it was the first time Mark and Susan would be visiting France.
In Canada I will officially be recognizied as a Senior Citizen collecting an Old Age Pension the month following my birth date.
As I write this I think oh how old!
Seriously though, I’m ok with this as I’m healthy and not feeling my age!
What a wonderful surprise to travel to la Belle France to once again experience the French life, the “joie de vivre” and the culture with all my senses.
Thank you Monsieur Honey for the most wonderful gift!
Today is what we dub as the “Hurry up and wait day”!
From waking up in our own beds, showering, dressing, making sure every last thing is packed ... and the final Monsieur “checklist” ... euros, passports, tickets, directions, etc.
And away we go ... thank you to our friend Nicky for the lift to the airport bus pickup.
Airport checkin, baggage drop off, security all was uneventful ... flight departed on time and we arrived in Paris (CDG) early.
We enjoyed some movie entertainment and a little cat nap.
We already had a long layover, now just a bit longer; we walked the 30 minutes between terminals, enjoyed a nice petite déjeuner ...
... then it was hurry up and wait for our flight to Toulouse.
The skies were foggy this morning causing many delays/ gate changes.
Our arrival in Toulouse was on time, we collected our luggage which finally did come around on the carousel (thank goodness they were there).
Next was the car rental pickup process with Europcar, upon checking the Opel we discovered too much damage and requested a different vehicle and we were given a new Peugeot 208, with a built in GPS ... “parlez vous Français?”
More on this later!
Finally on the road in direction to Montlaur.
We did a quick stop at a surpemarket in Trèbes for essentials arriving in Montlaur just before six o’clock.
We met our landlords who quickly showed us around L’Ancienne Sellerie.
We had a simple dinner of cheese, pâte, bread, wine ... we pushed our bed time to 9 o’clock ... we’ve been going for about 24 hours!
See you all tomorrow after we’ve had a good night’s sleep!
